How to Sell on Amazon in 2026: Registration, Fees, and Growth Strategies for Sellers

Selling successfully on Amazon starts with the right preparation: your products need to fit the marketplace, your costs need to be calculated realistically, and shipping and inventory need to run reliably. This guide walks you through launching your Amazon business, managing fees and fulfillment, and optimizing and scaling your sales.

Fact-checked on October 7, 2026 · Editorial team: magnalister

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Amazon Marketplace: Key Facts at a Glance

• Market relevance: Amazon captures roughly 40% of all U.S. retail e-commerce sales, and more than 60% of the sales in its store come from independent sellers.
• Fees: Depending on your selling plan, you pay $0.99 per item sold or $39.99 per month. On top of that come referral fees plus potential shipping, storage, and advertising costs.
• Fit: Amazon works best for high-demand, standardized products with sufficient margin, reliable inventory, and dependable processes.
• Fulfillment: FBA hands logistics, customer service, and returns over to Amazon; with FBM you keep more control but handle fulfillment yourself.
• Growth: Optimized listings and stable seller performance drive sales; Amazon Business, international marketplaces, and automated multichannel selling through integrations like magnalister unlock additional potential.

Table of Contents

What is the Amazon Marketplace?

The Amazon Marketplace is a sales channel that lets sellers list their products on amazon.com and sell to consumers as well as, through Amazon Business, to business customers. Identical items are usually consolidated on a shared product detail page. There, the individual offers compete on price, delivery speed, availability, and seller performance, among other factors.

How relevant is Amazon for U.S. sellers?

No other company shapes U.S. e-commerce like Amazon: the platform accounts for roughly 40% of all U.S. retail e-commerce sales (40.4% in 2024, according to eMarketer). ¹

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which sued Amazon together with 17 state attorneys general in September 2023, summed up its allegation as follows ²:

“[Amazon] is a monopolist that uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power.”

Amazon also leads the ranking of U.S. online retailers by a wide margin: according to Digital Commerce 360, its e-commerce sales exceed those of the rest of the top 10 combined ³. More than 60% of the sales in Amazon’s store come from independent sellers, most of them small and medium-sized businesses ⁴.

How much does it cost to sell on Amazon?

Selling on Amazon involves costs for your selling plan, the category-dependent referral fee, and order fulfillment. If you use FBA or advertising, shipping, storage, and campaign costs come on top. ⁵

Which fees do Amazon sellers pay?

How much you pay on Amazon depends on your selling plan, the product category, and the type of fulfillment:

• Selling plan fees: On the Individual plan, you pay $0.99 per item sold, while the Professional plan costs a flat $39.99 per month. Purely by the numbers, the Professional plan is cheaper from about 41 sales per month; its additional features can make it worthwhile even earlier.
• Category-dependent referral fees: Most categories fall between 8% and 15% of the total sales price, including shipping charges. Amazon charges, for example, 8% for personal computers and 15% for tools and home improvement, books, and toys. A minimum referral fee of $0.30 usually applies; some categories use price-tiered rates.
• FBA fulfillment fees: With Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Amazon handles storage, packing, and shipping. The fulfillment fee depends on the product type, its size tier, and its weight. Since April 17, 2026, a temporary fuel and logistics surcharge of 3.5% has been added to FBA fulfillment fees in the U.S.
• FBA storage fees: For standard-size inventory, Amazon charges $0.78 per cubic foot per month from January through September and $2.40 per cubic foot from October through December. Aged inventory and high storage utilization trigger additional surcharges.
• Advertising costs: Sponsored Products are billed per click. Costs depend on your bid, the competition, and your campaign budget.

Also factor in the costs of sourcing, returns, packaging, product testing, software, and internal handling time, all of which have a major impact on your contribution margin.

You can find the current fees in Amazon’s pricing overview for sellers.

Sample calculation: How do you calculate the margin of an Amazon listing?

You calculate the margin of an Amazon product by deducting all directly and proportionally attributable costs from the selling price. The following hypothetical example is for a product shipped from your own warehouse that you pack and ship yourself. The selling price is $50.00; sales tax is collected and remitted by Amazon on top of that and is not part of your proceeds:

Return and advertising costs are allocated proportionally: divide the product-related costs of a period by the number of units sold. If you use FBA, the FBA fulfillment and storage fees replace the corresponding costs of shipping yourself. The official Amazon Revenue Calculator helps with the math.

In this example, contribution margin II is $10.70, or 21.4% of the selling price. Out of that, you cover monthly fixed and overhead costs such as the Professional selling plan, software, warehouse rent, and administration. At 100 sales per month, for instance, about $0.40 of the monthly plan fee falls on each order.

What are the pros and cons of selling on Amazon?

Amazon gives you access to a huge customer base and an established selling infrastructure. In return, you accept fees, intense competition, and binding platform rules.

What are the advantages of selling on Amazon?

• Reach and trust: The established brand and familiar checkout make it easy to reach a large number of ready-to-buy customers.
• Existing infrastructure: Seller Central, payment processing, and other selling tools let you start without building your own marketplace infrastructure.
• Flexible fulfillment: You can ship orders yourself or through FBA, where Amazon handles storage, shipping, customer service, and returns.
• Additional markets: Amazon Business opens the door to business customers, while Amazon’s international marketplaces make global expansion easier.
• Growth tools: You get access to advertising formats, sales reports, brand programs, and analytics tools to optimize your business.

What are the disadvantages of selling on Amazon?

• Cost burden: Referral fees plus potential shipping, storage, and advertising costs eat into your contribution margin.
• Intense competition: On shared product detail pages, sellers compete on price, delivery speed, and seller performance.
• Limited independence: Access to customer data is restricted. At the same time, the larger Amazon’s share of your revenue, the more dependent your business becomes on the marketplace.
• Binding rules: Amazon sets clear requirements for listings and seller performance. Violations can affect individual listings or your entire seller account.

Who should sell on Amazon?

Amazon pays off above all when a viable margin remains after platform, shipping, return, and advertising costs and you can manage inventory and shipping reliably. For low-margin products or products that require a lot of explanation, the marketplace tends to be a poor fit.

The following table summarizes the key decision criteria:

Pro tip: If you also sell through your own online store or other marketplaces, our multichannel integration magnalister keeps product data, prices, inventory, and orders up to date at all times. That cuts manual maintenance and makes inventory discrepancies easy to avoid.

How do you start selling on Amazon?

To get started, you need a verified seller account, complete product data, and a reliable shipping process. In Seller Central, you then set up your listings, disbursements, and ongoing account management.

What are the requirements for Amazon sellers?

To register, you need current business, identity, tax, and payment details. In particular, have the following ready ⁶.

• Contact details: a business email address and phone number
• Proof of identity: a valid government-issued ID of the responsible person
• Business documents: your business registration or formation documents, if you sell as a company
• Payment details: a bank account plus a valid, chargeable credit card
• Tax information: your taxpayer identification number (SSN or EIN) and other relevant tax details
• Responsible persons: details of the company’s representatives and beneficial owners

Note: All information in Seller Central, your ID documents, and official records should match to avoid follow-up questions during verification.

How do you open an Amazon seller account?

You open your seller account through Amazon Seller Central and first choose your selling plan: Individual or Professional. Then you enter your business, contact, tax, and payment details. Amazon verifies your identity and may request additional documents or a video call ⁶.

Once approved, Seller Central serves as your central management hub. This is where you create listings, process orders, monitor inventory, upload invoices, and track the performance of your seller account.

How do you create your first Amazon listings?

To create an Amazon listing, you either select an existing product in the Amazon catalog or create a new product detail page. Existing products are consolidated under their ASIN; your own SKU identifies your specific offer within your seller account ⁷.

A complete listing usually requires:

• Product identifier: a GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN, or an approved GTIN exemption
• Product data: title, brand, category, and product-specific attributes
• Offer details: price, condition, quantity, and fulfillment method
• Content: product images and an accurate description
• Required disclosures: safety, manufacturer, and compliance information

Certain brands, categories, and products require approval before you can sell them. Check every new product group in Seller Central.

Which legal obligations apply to Amazon sellers?

As an Amazon seller, you remain responsible for the legality of your listings and products. Which documentation you need depends on the type of product, where your business is located, where your inventory is stored, and where you sell.

Particularly important are:

• Product safety: Products must comply with the rules of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC); children’s products, for example, require testing and a Children’s Product Certificate under the CPSIA, and products sold into California may need Proposition 65 warnings ⁸.
• Packaging laws: Seven states, among them California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington, have enacted extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging. Above certain revenue thresholds, you must register with a producer responsibility organization and pay fees ⁹.
• Sales tax: Under marketplace facilitator laws, Amazon collects and remits sales tax on your Amazon orders in every state that levies one. Inventory stored in other states and sales through your own channels can still create tax nexus and registration duties of your own. ¹⁰
• Consumer protection: Pricing, shipping promises, warranties, and returns must comply with FTC rules and Amazon’s policies, including the FTC’s 30-day rule for shipping orders on time.
• Product-specific obligations: Electronics, batteries, textiles, food, supplements, and other product groups are subject to additional labeling, registration, or take-back requirements at the federal or state level.

When does Amazon pay out your sales proceeds?

Amazon settles your account balance every two weeks and transfers the available funds to the bank account on file. Fees, refunds, and other charges are deducted beforehand; eligible sellers can also request faster payouts. ¹¹

Part of your balance may remain temporarily held in reserve, for example for orders that are not yet complete, refunds, or payment risks. Plan for this delay in your cash flow.

Amazon FBA: Outsourcing logistics and shipping to Amazon

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is an optional logistics service for Amazon sellers. You store your inventory at Amazon and hand over storage, shipping, customer service, and returns processing to the marketplace.

How does Amazon FBA work?

For Amazon FBA, you prep your products according to Amazon’s requirements and ship your inventory to assigned fulfillment centers. The received units are then tracked in your Seller Central account and are ready to sell.

After an order comes in, Amazon picks and packs the item, ships it to the customer, and updates your inventory. Customer inquiries, returns, and refunds are also handled operationally by Amazon.

For these services, you pay product-specific storage and fulfillment fees. You can learn more about Amazon FBA in our separate guide Amazon FBA: How sellers can profit from the Fulfillment by Amazon program.

What is the difference between Amazon FBA and FBM?

With Amazon FBA, Amazon stores and ships your products. With Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM), you keep fulfillment in your own hands and handle it yourself or through a logistics partner. Which model fits better depends mainly on product size, weight, storage duration, and the cost of your own logistics.

The following table compares Amazon FBA and FBM at a glance:

Amazon B2B: Which features does Amazon Business offer?

With Amazon Business, you reach business customers, enterprises, and public institutions in addition to consumers. The additional B2B features are activated on the Professional selling plan. You do not need a separate seller account or a second product catalog. ¹²

The core features of Amazon Business include:

• Business prices: Offer exclusive prices to registered Amazon Business customers.
• Quantity discounts: Tier your prices by order quantity.
• Tax-exempt purchases and invoicing: Use the Amazon Tax Exemption Program and invoicing features for business buyers.
• B2B reporting: Analyze sales and orders from business customers separately.

You can find more information about Amazon Business in our article Getting started with Amazon B2B: How to add the popular business features to your store.

Tips and tricks: Optimizing and scaling your Amazon business

You can scale your Amazon business through optimized listings, stable seller performance metrics, external integrations, and Amazon’s international marketplaces. The following sections show what matters most.

How do you improve listings and your chances of winning the Buy Box?

You improve Amazon listings with complete product data, compelling product copy, and high-quality images, among other things. Your copy should clearly explain the key features, benefits, suitable use cases, and any differences between variants.

The Buy Box, which Amazon now calls the Featured Offer, is the section of a product detail page where customers add an item to their cart or buy it directly. If several sellers offer the same product, Amazon selects one offer for it. The selection considers total price, delivery speed, availability, and seller performance, among other factors. ¹³

To maximize your chances of winning the Buy Box, focus on the following:

• Product title: State the brand, product type, and key attributes such as size, material, model, or compatibility.
• Product attributes: Fill in the category, variations, dimensions, and other product-specific details completely.
• Product copy: Explain features, benefits, use cases, what’s in the box, and relevant limitations in concrete terms.
• Product images: Use high-resolution, well-lit photos and show the product from several angles and in context.
• Prices and inventory: Keep your total price competitive and avoid out-of-stock listings.
• Shipping: Set realistic delivery times and fulfill orders reliably.

Note: Starting in July 2026, Amazon is removing the seller eligibility requirements for the Featured Offer in all of its stores, with the rollout scheduled to complete by the end of 2026. How the Featured Offer is selected does not change: competitive pricing, delivery speed, and seller performance remain decisive ¹³.

For more tips and strategies for selling on Amazon, read our article How to sell on Amazon successfully: Tips and tricks for a strong launch.

Which seller performance metrics do you need to watch on Amazon?

As an Amazon seller, you should keep a close eye on your order defect rate, your pre-fulfillment cancellation rate, and late shipments. Good values protect your account health, strengthen the reliability of your listings, and can improve your chances of winning the Buy Box. Amazon sets the following targets ¹⁴:

• Order defect rate: under 1%
• Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate: under 2.5%
• Late shipment rate: under 4%

Check your account health regularly in Seller Central. If you repeatedly miss the targets, Amazon can restrict or deactivate listings. Persistent violations can lead to selling restrictions and even the suspension of your seller account.

How do you sell internationally on Amazon?

You sell internationally on Amazon by activating your listings on additional Amazon marketplaces and adapting shipping, product data, and compliance to each target country. ¹⁵ Start with countries where demand, margin, and operational requirements demonstrably fit your product range, for example Canada and Mexico via Remote Fulfillment with FBA.

Before expanding, check in particular:

• Product data: Translate your product detail pages and add all locally required disclosures.
• Taxes and EPR: Check VAT, packaging, and other extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations in the target country.
• Shipping and returns: Calculate delivery times, shipping costs, and a suitable return address.
• Inventory locations: Keep in mind that storing inventory in other countries can trigger local tax registration duties.
• Customer service: Make sure you can support customers in the local language.

Our article Amazon Global Selling: How to grow your business beyond your home market walks you through preparation and execution in detail.

Multichannel selling: Automate Amazon processes and unlock new sales channels with magnalister

As a central multichannel integration, magnalister connects store systems such as Shopify, WooCommerce, or Shopware directly with Amazon and other online marketplaces. ¹⁶

That lets you manage your marketplace business centrally from the back end of your online store, reduce the manual effort of maintaining several sales channels, and avoid overselling and self-inflicted cancellations.

magnalister offers the following core features:

• Central product upload: Upload items to all connected marketplaces quickly and efficiently
• Price synchronization: Transmit prices fully automatically or individually (per marketplace)
• Inventory synchronization: Keep inventory levels in sync between your store and the marketplaces at all times and avoid self-inflicted cancellations
• Automatic order import: Import and manage marketplace orders
• Attribute matching: Match product variations and attributes to the marketplace attributes
• Order status synchronization: Automatically transmit order statuses (e.g., “shipped” or “canceled”) to the marketplaces
• Invoice upload: Automatically transmit invoices from your online store

Try magnalister free for 30 days with full functionality and reach millions of potential new customers.

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Conclusion: Huge sales potential meets fierce competition

Amazon gives sellers access to a ready-to-buy customer base, strong brand awareness, and an established sales and logistics infrastructure. With Amazon Business, international selling, and FBA, you can also extend your reach to additional customer groups and markets.

As a result, competition on the platform is fierce. You also have to play by the marketplace’s rules, whose reach the FTC describes as follows in its antitrust case against Amazon, now scheduled for trial in March 2027 ¹⁷: “Amazon’s actions allow it to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon.”

To sell successfully, you therefore need products with sufficient margin, optimized listings, and reliable inventory, shipping, and returns processes. Stable seller performance metrics are ultimately the foundation for growing your Amazon business sustainably.

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FAQ: Frequently asked questions about selling on Amazon

Do I need a registered business to sell on Amazon?

Not necessarily. You can sell on Amazon as an individual using your Social Security number, and your income is still taxable. Once you sell regularly with the intent to make a profit, it makes sense to register a business, obtain an EIN, and check whether you need a sales tax permit in your state. ¹⁸

Can I sell on Amazon for free?

No. The Individual selling plan has no monthly fee, but Amazon charges $0.99 per item sold plus the applicable referral fee. Shipping, FBA, and advertising can add further costs. ⁵

How do I win the Amazon Buy Box?

You increase your chances of winning the Amazon Buy Box with an optimized listing, a competitive offer, and reliable order fulfillment. Focus on the following:

• Optimize your listing: Complete your product data and make your title, attributes, images, and description compelling
• Keep your price competitive: Compare your product price and shipping costs with similar offers regularly
• Secure availability: Avoid stockouts and keep sufficient inventory on hand
• Ship fast: Set realistic delivery times and ship orders on time
• Keep seller performance stable: Minimize order defects, cancellations, and late shipments
• Review your fulfillment: FBA or comparably reliable self-fulfillment can improve your delivery performance. ¹³

Can I sell products without a UPC or GTIN on Amazon?

Yes. For certain products and categories, you can apply for a GTIN exemption. It applies to the approved product type in the respective Amazon marketplace. For many branded products and categories, a valid product identifier remains mandatory. ¹⁹

Do I need Amazon Brand Registry to sell?

No. Amazon Brand Registry is not a general requirement for selling. For owners of a registered trademark, however, it unlocks additional tools for brand protection, product content, analytics, and advertising. ¹⁹

What is the difference between Amazon Seller Central and Vendor Central?

Seller Central is for merchants who sell their products directly to customers as independent third-party sellers. In the vendor model, a company sells its goods to Amazon, and Amazon then acts as the seller of record toward the customer. Access to Vendor Central is by invitation only.

Which return rules do I need to follow as an Amazon seller?

Amazon sellers must comply with the marketplace’s return policies and applicable consumer protection laws. With FBM, you handle return requests, refunds, and inspection of returned goods largely yourself. With FBA, Amazon takes care of the operational side. Refunds, damaged goods, and possible processing fees remain relevant for your calculation.

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